When brands (want to) become media
Credibility: What used to be blatant product placement is now marketed as «programming» or «branded journalism.» The problems and debates, however, have remained the same.
Credibility What used to be clumsy product placement now comes across as "programming" or "branded journalism". However, the problems and discussions remain the same, and the fact that the title question "Yesterday's role models?" is of a rhetorical nature is demonstrated by scandals such as the one surrounding Ringier's unofficially sponsored TV doctor Samuel Stutz. Or the TV inaugural speech by Germany's new national team coach Jürgen Klinsmann, which was castigated as surreptitious advertising by the news magazine Focus last week. The stumbling block was the screen placed behind the head of the football hopeful and advertising medium: viewers had to fixate on the logos of the association sponsors emblazoned on it for an hour.
Of course, there are also more elegant and subtle methods of manipulating media consumers who rely on mandatory declarations - or exploiting the program providers' notorious lack of money. These go under unsuspicious names such as "programming" or "media cooperation" and all have just one aim, namely to smuggle advertising messages into TV programs and onto newspaper pages.
"The average consumer should no longer be able to tell who is informing them, the editorial team or an advertiser." You couldn't say it more bluntly than Oliver Kaiser in the current issue of Kontakter. Kaiser describes himself as a "brand content manager" and is probably Germany's leading border blurring strategist at the moment. In his opinion, we are facing a paradigm shift, because "brands themselves are becoming media".
If Barbara Baerns is to be believed, this is already in full swing. That is why the Berlin journalism professor has ordered essays from renowned colleagues, as well as the managing director of the German Advertising Association, which shed light on editorial marketing, advertorials and similar gray areas. The development and progressive dissolution of the principle of separating commercial and editorial content is discussed analytically throughout. Alarmism has no place in this explosive anthology.
Clear opinions, on the other hand. For example, that of the editor: "Transparency of the origin of what is presented, that is what we can expect. No more, but certainly no less." Otherwise credibility, the basic resource of the media industry, will continue to erode. Until the industry groans in a variation of Neil Postman's bon mot: We're advertising ourselves to death!
> Yesterday's models? On the separation of advertising and program, edited by Barbara Baerns. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2004. 292 pages, Fr. 60.40
Oliver Classen
Of course, there are also more elegant and subtle methods of manipulating media consumers who rely on mandatory declarations - or exploiting the program providers' notorious lack of money. These go under unsuspicious names such as "programming" or "media cooperation" and all have just one aim, namely to smuggle advertising messages into TV programs and onto newspaper pages.
"The average consumer should no longer be able to tell who is informing them, the editorial team or an advertiser." You couldn't say it more bluntly than Oliver Kaiser in the current issue of Kontakter. Kaiser describes himself as a "brand content manager" and is probably Germany's leading border blurring strategist at the moment. In his opinion, we are facing a paradigm shift, because "brands themselves are becoming media".
If Barbara Baerns is to be believed, this is already in full swing. That is why the Berlin journalism professor has ordered essays from renowned colleagues, as well as the managing director of the German Advertising Association, which shed light on editorial marketing, advertorials and similar gray areas. The development and progressive dissolution of the principle of separating commercial and editorial content is discussed analytically throughout. Alarmism has no place in this explosive anthology.
Clear opinions, on the other hand. For example, that of the editor: "Transparency of the origin of what is presented, that is what we can expect. No more, but certainly no less." Otherwise credibility, the basic resource of the media industry, will continue to erode. Until the industry groans in a variation of Neil Postman's bon mot: We're advertising ourselves to death!
> Yesterday's models? On the separation of advertising and program, edited by Barbara Baerns. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2004. 292 pages, Fr. 60.40
Oliver Classen
